


Dangerous Games

by kimdonghyuns



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Board Games, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Magic, Thriller, Woosan, magic board games, seongjoong, yungi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:42:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26385850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kimdonghyuns/pseuds/kimdonghyuns
Summary: It was supposed to be like any other Friday night, nothing but best friends hanging out and having a good time, drinking until they passed out without a care in the world. None of them could have predicted that a simple antique would change all of that.After all, it's just a game, right?
Relationships: Choi San/Jung Wooyoung, Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi, Kim Hongjoong/Park Seonghwa
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	1. Sixth Sense (Monopoly)

Park Seonghwa prides himself on being able to tell when something was amiss.

He figured it was partly to do with being the oldest in his group of friends, or the fact that the younger ones were painfully oblivious to a lot of things. Occasionally though, Yeosang would pick up on it when he felt something was off, but that apparently wouldn’t be the case today. Today, he sat in front of the coffee table in Seonghwa’s living room, giggling without a care at something Wooyoung was showing him on his phone. And so Seonghwa was left feeling uneasy by himself.

Call it a sixth sense, call it intuition, call it anything you’d like, but Park Seonghwa had a hunch that something not-so-good was going to happen today.

“Guys, do y’all feel that?” he asks, trying to get the attention of the two other boys.

Wooyoung looks up from his phone and turns towards Seonghwa, puzzled expression on his face, “Feel what?”

Wooyoung glances over to the boy next to him to see if he knew what their friend was talking about, but Yeosang just shrugs.

Seonghwa sighs and crosses his arms in defeat, sinking back farther into the couch,”Nevermind, just forget about it. Have you heard anything from the rest of the crew?”

"Yeah,I think San was helping his grandparents finish packing or something before he comes over, should be soon though" Wooyoung says, attention drifting back to his phone. "As for the other two, I've no idea. Probably somewhere being gay as usual."

Yeosang snorts, "You say this like we don't see you practically undressing San with your eyes every dang time he walks into a room. You're not very subtle, Wooyoungie."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Wooyoung lets out a nervous laugh and playfully shoves Yeosang, resulting in the two of them bickering like five-year-olds.

Meanwhile, Seonghwa still couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't going to be like most of their weekly Friday night hangouts.

Any other time he'd be a little more excited for it as they had all been busier than usual lately. Friday's were now the only night a week that they had a chance to goof off, and even though his friends could be incredibly annoying sometimes, being with them sounds like a much better option to Seonghwa than being alone. It never mattered what they did, whether it was drinking and drinking until they physically could not drink anymore, relentlessly cracking jokes, or huddling together on the floor to binge watch whatever drama was popular at the moment - they were their own little family, in their own little disconnected world. And it'd been like that for so long now, none of them could imagine it any other way.

So why did Seonghwa feel so on edge, thinking that something was soon going to change that?

“Seonghwa, Seonghwa!” Wooyoung calls, waving a hand in front of Seonghwa’s face and breaking him out of his reverie. “San’s on his way up with something that will, and I quote, ‘blow our minds and bring the party to our Friday’s’. So uh, unlock the door for him?”

Seonghwa rolls his eyes, “This better not be another attempt to convince us that we’re not alone in the universe or I will literally drop kick the crackhead to freaking Pluto.”

Yeosang and Wooyoung snicker at the comment while Seonghwa gets up off the couch. He still couldn’t shake the weird feeling as he walks towards the door to unlock it, wondering what the actual heck San had up his sleeve this time.

-

“Wait, wait, wait a second. You mean to tell me you got us all worked up over a board game? You’re kidding me right?”

San gives Seonghwa his best pouty face, not at all satisfied with how his friend was reacting to his discovery. The game he held in his hand was unlike anything he’d ever seen before and he’d thought that the others would be a little more excited. It was something that looked to be from a completely different time, a different era, one long before any of them were born.

Which to San meant one thing and one thing only: this game could be worth some money.

“Seonghwa this isn’t just some board game, it’s a freaking antique. Don’t you know what this means?” San asks.

Yeosang raises an eyebrow and looks at Seonghwa, “You still wanna drop kick him? I’ll go grab your good shoes.”

Seonghwa shakes his head and puts a hand on Yeosang’s shoulder to keep him from getting up and doing just that. He had to keep the peace sometimes, obviously.

“No no no, let’s let him explain himself first,” he reasons, then adds as an afterthought, “And then we’ll send him on a little trip if we don’t like the answer. Better bundle up San, I hear Pluto’s quite cold this time of ye-”

Wooyoung interrupts with a, “Hey, who said I agreed to that?”

Seonghwa and Yeosang exchange a knowing look, almost feeling bad for the guy at how poorly he was concealing his little crush. Clearly, subtlety was a term that was almost unheard of when it came to their friend group. And if San wasn’t so oblivious he probably would have figured it out ages ago.

“Wooyoung, your gay is showing.”

Before Wooyoung could say something that would cause him to get in another childish argument with Yeosang, someone banging on the door makes all of them go quiet.

“Open up hoes! We’ve got pizza and beer,” their friend calls, a bit too overenthusiastic.

“Speaking of gay,” Seonghwa sighs and walks back towards the door to let Yunho and Mingi into his apartment.

The two walk inside and quickly set everything they were holding down on the coffee table, matching grins plastered on both their faces.

“Good, everyone’s already here. Let the party begin,” Mingi says, already reaching into the plastic bag to pull out a can of their favorite beer.

The rest of them follow suit, leaving San frustrated that they’d already moved on from the topic without giving him a chance to explain. Not a single one of them really had a high paying job, so he couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t hear out his plan to make a little pocket cash. San briefly thought about dropping it and just keeping it all to himself, but he was too nice of a friend for that.

He clutches the board game tighter in his hands, fully prepared to pout like a five year old until the other guys actually listened to him.

“Um, guys?” San asks, pout already in place. “Did y’all already forget what we were talking about?”

They all stop talking and turn to look at San in question, Yunho and Mingi hopelessly confused as they’d not been part of the conversation a few minutes prior. Seonghwa runs a hand through his dyed blonde hair in frustration, knowing full well that San was too stubborn to stop nagging them until they cooperated. Therefore he nor any of the others had any choice but to let him have his way, and so Seonghwa makes a motion with his hand for his younger friend to keep talking.

“Go ahead, say what you want to say so we can get this over with and have fun.”

“Um, did we miss something?” Yunho asks, looking at each of them.

San sits the game down on the coffee table in front of them, and one by one they pick the wooden box up to look at it.

“I found this board game in the back of a drawer when I was helping my grandparents pack. Look at the thing, seems pretty old right? I say we open it up and mess around with it, see if we think it may actually be worth something. You know collectors could go crazy over stuff like this.”

Seonghwa is the last to pick up the thing, running his fingers across the wooden surface in curiosity. San was right about it being old, that’s for sure. As far as it’s worth, well, that wasn’t so easy to tell just by looking at it. It wasn’t like any of them actually knew anything about antiques and the how-tos on judging if something held value. He didn’t know if it would even be worth it to get it appraised, considering they still hadn’t opened the thing up.

However, he didn’t think it’d hurt to try it out and see for themselves. The game might actually be something entertaining and adding something new to their get-togethers wasn’t exactly a bad idea. Seonghwa only hoped that they wouldn’t mess it up if there was even the slightest chance that it would actually be worth any money.

“Well, are y’all in or not?” San asks, looking at the rest of them expectantly.

“It wouldn’t hurt to open it up and give it a go,” Yunho says nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as if to say he didn’t care one way or another.

The rest of them half-heartedly agree and they quickly finish off what was left of the pizza before gathering on the floor, in front of the coffee table. San is unsurprisingly the first one to reach for the game and he pulls off the wooden lid to dump the contents onto the floor, in the center of the circle they’d formed. The game’s pieces roll around, a different one stopping in front of each person, almost like they were drawn to them.

It was beyond weird, but it’s also something that not one of them pays much attention to, like complete fools.

“What is this, some outdated version of Monopoly?” Mingi asks, picking up the piece in front of him - a giraffe.

In truth, Mingi was right, it did look similar.

Only, instead of each of the squares on the board being occupied by different places, they were occupied by symbols. Symbols that were in a language that none of them had the ability to decipher. And in each square next to the symbols, an expertly drawn picture of the different game pieces was shown. One for each individual piece, making nine in total.

Since there were only six people playing, there were a few pieces still lying next to the board. Seonghwa picks each one of them up to get a closer look, setting his own dragon piece down for the moment. He turns them over one by one, the first one being a fox, the second being a lion and the third, a human woman with a pointy hat. A witch, maybe? It was the only human piece out of all of them, which Seonghwa found odd.

The weird feeling he’d experienced earlier makes a comeback, something completely unsettling. It was just a normal Friday night, and all they were about to do was play a stupid board game. So why did this feeling make him think he should put a stop to this?

However, he stops himself before he says anything. This was a just a game, he was sure nothing bad would come out of it. Whatever was causing this feeling had to be from something else. Seonghwa didn’t know what it was yet, and he could only hope that he wouldn’t have to find out either.

Following after Seonghwa and Mingi, the others look at their pieces as well: Yunho’s was a bear, Yeosang’s a cat, San’s a dog, and Wooyoung’s a rabbit. Each piece was carved out of wood, just like the box and the board itself. The craftsmanship of it all was exquisite, and everyone couldn’t help but think that San may be onto something here.

The only problem now was that they didn’t have a clue how to play.

Considering how old the thing was, there didn’t appear to be any clear instructions on how to play, not even a name for the game to be found. Wooyoung grabs the box and looks at it once more to make sure there wasn’t anything left in there that would help them figure this out. When he finds nothing, he tosses it back to the ground carelessly, annoyed.

“Hey! Be careful, remember it-” San begins to scold.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, it could be worth something,” Wooyoung interrupts, holding a hand up to get San to stop talking. “But, how exactly are we supposed to figure it out without instructions?”

San shrugs, “Mingi said it looked like Monopoly, maybe we can try playing it the same way.”

There’s a silent agreement between everyone that they’d do just that, seeing as there weren’t many other options other than forgetting about the whole thing entirely. And considering how enthusiastic San was about this, that wasn’t really an option either. One last time, Seonghwa shakes off the bad feeling in his gut before it could take root and nag at him, saying:

“Fine, let’s play.”


	2. Hot Glue

A crack. 

A crack so loud that it echoed around the room, the sound reverberating off the walls. Something so powerful that it could only be compared to a clap of thunder with the way that it shook the confines of Seonghwa and Yeosang’s apartment suddenly and violently. This sound is what wakes the six boys up from where they’d all passed out in different spots across the living room, hungover and whining about how mother nature and her storms had no respect for their sleep time. 

Except, it wasn’t a storm.

This quickly becomes evident when none other than Choi San starts yelling, causing the others who had brushed off the noise and pulled the blankets over their heads to try and sleep more to jump up with a start. 

"San what the heck?" Mingi whines, rubbing at his eyes and kicking at the blanket that had wrapped itself a bit too tightly around his long legs due to the sudden movement.

“It’s broken! Which one of you hoes did it?” San asks, annoyance clear in his tone.

He was turned away from them, but by the way his back was rising and falling with deep breaths and the way his hands clenched into fists by his side, anyone could tell he was angry. The rest of the boys look back and forth between each other, no one quite sure what exactly their friend was going on about. That is, until he bends down to pick something up off the floor.

Still mad as ever, San turns back towards the rest of them with two perfectly cut pieces of wood in his hands. It doesn’t take long for everyone to realize just what that wood belonged to. What San was holding was none other than the thing he’d made such a fuss about the night before, in a much less sellable state to put it lightly.

Because now? Now the board game, the antique that got their hopes up (or at least San’s) for a bit of quick cash, was broken. With it split right down the middle, there was no way they’d be able to make anything off of it now. 

“This! This is what I’m talking about,” San whines, waving the pieces of wood in the air for emphasis. “Now answer me! Which one of you hoes did it?” 

“Woah woah wait a minute,” Seonghwa says, raising his hands in a defensive manner. “What makes you think we had anything to do with it?”

San sets the broken pieces on the coffee table and plops down onto the floor in front of it, arms crossed over his chest like a pouting child. Him being overdramatic was nothing new to the other boys, but acting like this over something so small was a bit overkill. Even Wooyoung, who could 100% rival San in a drama queen showdown, felt shocked by this. 

“If not one of you, then who? The witch?” San says, motioning to one of the only game pieces that hadn’t gone missing. “Come on Seonghwa, just admit it and I’ll stop.” 

“San you need to chill out, we were all asleep. So unless Mingi started sleepwalking aga- hey!” 

Before Yunho could even finish his sentence he’s tackled to the ground by Mingi, who clearly hadn’t liked where it was going. It didn’t take long for the tussle to turn into something less playful and more cuddly. Nothing new to the rest of the boys, but that didn’t mean they wanted to see their friends being all lovey dovey and just plain gross. 

“Well on that note, if you’ll excuse me I’m going home to apologize to my grandparents for you idiots breaking their antique. Thanks a lot guys.” 

San makes a move to reach for the broken pieces of the board, but Yeosang beats him to it. Before San could even get a grip on it, he’d already snatched it off of the coffee table and made a beeline for his bedroom. The others were all too confused by his actions for anyone to make a move to go after Yeosang, much less stop him. 

The room is silent for a minute before they all heard a loud ‘ow!’ from the direction Yeosang had ran off in and Seonghwa rolls his eyes. He’d never understand why his friend thought a hot glue gun could fix everything, especially with the amount of fails he’s had compared to the amount of successes. The man had tried it on pretty much anything and everything they’d broken since they’d moved in together, if he thought he had a chance of fixing it that is. Seonghwa would also never understand why, after he’s used at as many times as he has, Yeosang still couldn’t quite figure out how to work the thing.

“Yeosang! How many times do I have to tell you not to touch the hot end?” Seonghwa yells and shakes his head, smiling while doing so, showing a mix of fondness for his friend and concern that he’d probably gotten burnt again. 

“Is he - you know what, nevermind. I have work at 9 and I’ve got to explain all of this before I go” San says, flailing his arms around for emphasis like that would change the situation. “It’s y’all’s fault if I get yelled at, just so you know. Call me if Mr. Handyman actually manages to fix the thing, I’ll see y’all next Friday.”

With that, San grabs his things and walks out of the apartment without giving his friends a chance to respond. 

Something about the way San had acted didn’t seem right, and the feeling that something not-so-good would happen rushes over Seonghwa again. The whole situation was just so...bizarre that he couldn’t wrap his head around it. Sure, Seonghwa had seen his fair share of a pissed off San, but nothing to this extent. The way he was so upset over a board game he’d just found yesterday was a bit, well, concerning and a bit over the top for something that was only just being used to make a little extra cash. 

If the looks on Yunho, Mingi, and Wooyoung’s faces were anything to go by, Seonghwa would say they were thinking the same thing.

“So um, I think I’m gonna go check on Yeosang and see if I can find all the game pieces that went missing.” Seonghwa says after a few minutes of the four sitting in silence, and that was how their strangest weekly hangout yet came to an end.

-

Seonghwa couldn’t sleep. 

No matter how many times he’d toss and turn, he couldn’t get comfortable. He’d thrown off the blankets several times, only to pull them back over him again. The pillows had been fluffed as much as they could possibly be fluffed, but they’d only sink right back down under the weight of his head after a few minutes. 

Needless to say, the struggle was real and Seonghwa was miserable.

He eventually decides to just give up and rolls over, grabbing his phone off of the night stand to check the time. The numbers on the screen read 3:15 and Seonghwa lets out a tired whine. He lays there for a few more minutes before eventually deciding that if he’s not going to be able to sleep, he might as well get up and eat something to pass the time. 

All the lights in the apartment were off, which Seonghwa found odd because Yeosang usually always left at least one light on before he went to bed since he was always nervous he’d trip over something if he had to get up in the middle of the night. However, Seonghwa decides to just brush it off and he turns on his phone's flashlight so he can see how to get to the kitchen. It doesn’t take him long to find a bag of his favorite chips packed away in the corner of their snack cabinet, which was the last one unfortunately.

Seonghwa takes out the pen and pad of post-it notes they kept in one of their kitchen drawers to write down that they needed more chips, as well as a few other things they were running low on before he forgot. Seonghwa knew that if he stuck it somewhere Yeosang would see that he’d take it with him when he left for work in the morning. His roommate was the one who typically picked up their groceries anyway, and Seonghwa had left little notes enough times and Yeosang knew where to look by now that he was sure Yeosang wouldn’t miss it.

Seonghwa decides the best place to stick it is on the front of the refrigerator so he does just that, then picks up his bag of chips and heads back to his room. 

Seonghwa figures that maybe the reason he hadn’t been able to sleep was simply because he’d been a little hungry. This proves to be true because after he’d eaten the bag of chips without leaving a single crumb behind, he feels the first hit of drowsiness start to take effect and Seonghwa lets out a loud yawn. His head finds its way back to his pillow soon after, and within minutes he’s fast asleep.

-

Something doesn’t feel right.

That was the first thought that had crossed Seonghwa’s mind when he’d woken up that morning, and for good reason.

When he’d went to make himself breakfast, the note he left for Yeosang was still stuck to the fridge. This doesn’t automatically put Seonghwa into a panic because honestly, even though he was sure he’d put it in a place his friend would see it, Yeosang could have missed it or even just forgotten to grab it when he left. So yes, maybe it was a little odd since it usually didn’t happen, but Seonghwa doesn’t let himself think on it too much. 

However, when he gets off work for the day and Seonghwa comes back home to a still empty apartment, the worry starts to creep up on him. 

Sure, Yeosang was a grown man but his shift ended three hours before Seonghwa’s did so he definitely should have been home by now. Especially considering that he’d likely let Seonghwa know if he was staying somewhere else for the night because if Seonghwa was being honest, he didn’t like staying by himself and Yeosang was well aware of that. With that in mind, Seonghwa sets down his things and makes his way to Yeosang’s bedroom just to check. Maybe he actually was home, but had gone straight to bed for a nap, which wasn’t necessarily something unusual for him to do.

However, after Seonghwa knocks and doesn’t get an answer he decides that’s probably not the case, but he slowly opens Yeosang’s door to make sure he wasn’t actually in there. It doesn’t surprise him when he finds the room empty. What is surprising though, is the fact that he could see Yeosang’s phone sitting on the nightstand, like he hadn’t touched it since before he went to sleep last night. 

That’s when Seonghwa really starts to get concerned.

What’s weirder is that the box for the board game was lying, partially opened, in the center of Yeosang’s bed. Curiosity gets the better of Seonghwa and he walks towards it to fully take the lid off the box, wondering why his friend had left it there in the first place because quite frankly, it didn’t make sense. Nothing abnormal sticks out to Seonghwa at first, until he gets a better look and sees it.

The pieces that made up the board were somehow now seamlessly attached to become one again, something that Seonghwa knew was way beyond Yeosang’s hot glue gun skills.

Seonghwa had to get a closer look to see if he could actually be seeing what he thought he was, but before he could even fully get it out of the box, he threw it right back down. In shock, he collapses onto the floor because of the pain that had now started to radiate throughout his entire right hand. Seonghwa tries to quickly shake it back and forth to get the burning to stop, but it’s useless. 

After finding the energy to stand back up, Seonghwa makes a run for the kitchen and turns on the tap, letting the cold water run over the skin on his hand. The burn eventually starts to subside, turning into a more numb and tingly feeling instead. But even with the pain fading, Seonghwa was still panicking and he found it hard to calm down enough to where he could catch his breath. 

Seonghwa didn’t have any clue what had just happened, but he certainly knew that burn wasn’t from a hot glue gun.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and thanks for reading! I have so much planned for this story, enjoy the few lighthearted chapters while they last lol :) I thrive off of feedback and constructive criticism so comments are always appreciated!
> 
> (ps yes I took this down for some editing and to combine the original intro with the first chapter haha, but it's back up now)


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